I’m helping a family member organize their digital photo collection and copy them off of CD-R’s onto more accessible media.
They have a bunch of images in a .mix format. Apparently this was an image format used by a microsoft app ~25 years ago. It can’t be read/converted by any of the image editing tools I have currently.
I’ve tried downloading a couple of utilities that claimed to read .mix but none of them have worked so far. Based on that experience I’m very hesitant to pay for an app and find out it doesn’t work either.
Asking for help along 2 lines:
1 - If you ARE CERTAIN that a particular app/utility will work, please share it with me. Please don’t just google “.mix” and link me to what is returned - I’ve been doing that myself and so far wasted a bunch of time.
2 - If you POSSESS a paid app that will convert .mix to JPG, please let me know and perhaps we can work out a deal where I provide the .mix files online and you return copies as jpg files. Happy to talk about compensating for the assistance in money, ammo, etc.
Convert .MIX Format Images with Word
Another way to convert .MIX images created in Microsoft Picture It! is with Microsoft Word 2002/XP or later.
This can be done by using the insert tool to place your .MIX format image into a document. Once you have done this, go to File > Save as Web Page and choose a location. Browse to this folder. The .MIX image will have been converted to a .JPG file as part of the process. You can now use this image in other applications.
Note that this process does not allow layer information to be copied/converted. This will be lost.
Use XP Virtualisation to Convert .MIX
If you have a copy of Microsoft Picture It! on disc and are using Windows Vista or 7, you wont be able to install the application. However, if you are able to set up a virtual PC and have your Windows XP disc, you will be able to setup a virtual machine running Windows XP onto which you can install Microsoft Picture It!. (If you dont have a copy, you could use this trial version of Microsoft Digital Imaging Starter Edition 2006)
Appreciate the suggestion, but that post is ~13 years old. I’m skeptical that “modern” versions of MS Word will still do this, but I’ll give it a try. If it does work, it’s going to be REAL TEDIOUS to do it for hundreds of files.
I was originally going to ask you to send me a mix file so I could test this myself. You could probably insert many mix files to one word doc if this process works. It may be tedious but it’s free
.mix files are basically jpgs with M$ metadata. there is a slim possibility that if you change the file extension to jpg or jpeg, it may open.
Make a copy of one file and rename it. If it actually works (only 10% confident) then use a file utility to bulk change the file extensions. However make a backup just to be safe.
No go. Either attempting to “Insert Picture” (.mix is not one of the default file extensions it looks for, so I have to select “all” for file type) or a direct drag-and-drop into the word document both result in no image:
Appreciate the offer, but I’ve got a line on an .iso file for the actual PictureIt application. Might be able to install that on a Win 7 PC I’ve still got hanging around.
That seems about right for an image file size for the day. The thing about .mix files is they are like a container. sort of like a MS Power Point presentation. It is a container or wrapper, not a proper single function like exe jpg doc etc… more like a zip or tar. Basically the image (most likely a jpg) is in there waiting to be jailbroke.
If you can get that software (working) would be best.